1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for mitigating undesirable “toe-walking” and or “heal-walking” by training; namely prompting an auditory stimulus as positive reinforcement when pressure is placed on an inappropriate portion of the foot. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and training system for limiting “toe-walking” or “heel-walking” action as well as a system for providing a portable adaptive technology which is client-initiated thereby creating repeated opportunities for therapeutic reminders, exercise, and stretching. Additional alternatives enable electronic tracking measures for treatment purpose and interaction with computer tracking systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The related art involves a number of shoe innersoles and coordinated pressure sensing electronics enabling a pressure sensing to stimulate bone growth during medical treatment involving running or walking actions.
A first related art example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,929,332, to Brown, discloses a sensor shoe for monitoring the condition of strike force a foot within a shoe.
A computerized foot pressure microcomputer is provided for receiving signals from sensors and analyzing the signals to determine if a critical situation exists regarding whether or not sufficient foot pressure is applied by a walking patient for medical treatment of broken bones. The capacity to provide medication is asserted as well as the capacity for continuously monitoring foot pressure and making determinative analyses for the release of pharmaceutical products to mitigate pain based upon a calculated expectation of pain.
A second example US Pat. Pub. No. 2003/0009308 to Kertley, is directed to a combination of sensors in a shoe sole wherein data from the sensors is stored and relayed to a monitoring assessment for determining running/walking cadence and the power of the walking test subject. Principally, Kertley, provides such electronic systems as are common in the art, and notes the use of related equipment to adjust the use of medical treatment for podiatrist related injuries, namely foot injuries involving Done and joint damage.
Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,606, to Walczyk et al., is directed to a shoe and shoe system that provides biofeedback relating to a gait vector wherein there application of stress or weight during a medical therapy is essential to the healing process of bone structures. This reference teaches the combination of a gait and forced sensor that provides some amount of physical measurement in terms of measuring a patient's force placed upon an injured limb during use. No patient sensing ability is discussed.
In an additional example of related art, children's shoewear or sandals often provide auditory stimulus when the child places pressure on a heel portion of a sandal, the auditory stimulus is made by a simple squeaky-air pressure type mechanism for entertainment (generating a “squeak-sound”).
It is additionally known that children's shoes may include an LED or light mechanism light up during walking action upon each heal-pressure occurrence as an entertainment enhancement or as a safety signal during darkness. Similar mechanisms are involved in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,789,716, 5,812,063, and 6,280,045.
What is not appreciated by the related art is the need by, and the existence of, particular disable children (and even some adults) who require medical therapy for so-called “toe walking” or “heel-only-walking” disabilities.
It is known that very young children often learn to walk by stepping on their toes in the 8-24 month range. Thereafter, non-disabled children readily learn to walk, grow out of this toe-walking process, and develop suitable heal-to-toe walking with suitable stretching of the Achilles tendon and muscular development.
Unfortunately, a small percentage of children remain as toe-walkers, namely those who continue to toe-walk beyond an expected and initial developmental stage. This continued toe-walking is often a resultant indication of those children having a mental, physical, or emotional disabilities (broadly labeled as autism). Even for those non-autistic children who lack the ability to normally terminate their toe-walking, due to hyper-activity or attention deficit disorder (ADD) for example, there is a severe limitation on the enjoyment of life and often a medical risk to their norm muscle, ligament, and bone development. In some cases, a subset of the greater whole, such toe-walking is reflected instead as also heel-walking wherein the heel is solely used for walking. Similar concerns arise for such heel-walking patients. Thus, there is a need for a therapy system and apparatus that enables timely therapeutic treatment of such inappropriate gait issues for typically children but also patients of all ages.
The related art similarly fails to recognize the detriment of employing short-term human-only vocal reminders for gait-training, for example to place a heal-first while walking, particularly for autistic or otherwise disabled persons (ADD) who will not improve (or will improve very slowly) without constant almost-ever-present reminders/stimuli to reinforce therapy. Sadly, such physical disabilities are often compounded with learning disabilities rendering conventional physical therapy difficult or impossible for some patients.
Therefore what is not appreciated by the art is the need for a system to rapidly and repeatedly train toe/heel-walkers in a manner that enables continuous and acceptable forms of physical auditory and/or electronic reminders to a toe-walking or inappropriately heal-walking patient.
What is additionally not appreciated by the related art is a training mechanism that is patient/client-initiated, and provides a positive reinforcement to a disabled subject. What is further not appreciated by the prior art is the need for an auditory stimulus that is interchangeable and downloadable while linked with a walking gait motion determining system to retrain students away from toe/heal-walking disabilities.
Finally, what is not appreciated by the prior art is the use of such systems as disclosed herein in conjunction with managing computer programs or internet communications enabling storage, tracking, monitoring, and manipulation of data throughout an entire historic time period for analysis and the management of such patient treatment (including the changing of the stimulus when a previous stimulus has lost effectiveness and other treatment variables) from a distance by skilled therapeutic and medical professionals.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved electronic auditory stimulus to decrease toe walking in treatment of individuals and to eliminate inappropriate heel walking in overcompensated toe walker patients.